
Dawkins (1871-1955) first went to Crete in 1903 to work as a prehistoric archaeologist, and he excavated various Minoan sites on the island for several years. Keywords: Tourism, modernisation, costs and benefits, development, demand and supply, Crete. It is the aim of this paper to review past studies, having examined various aspects of tourism in Crete in order to investigate the costs and benefits associated with the modernisation of the island through tourism expansion and to provide recommendations for future development.

In effect, various social and environmental strains have resulted, such as environmental degradation, cultural pollution, commercialisation of human relations and negative demonstration effects.

However, tourism development was directed to the increase of demand through the increase of the numbers of beds, as well as the concentration of tourist arrivals in space and time, rather than the balanced development of the tourism industry. Specifically, tourism has been transformed into a primary source of income and employment generation for the island and has improved the quality of life for the locals. Tourism in Crete is an irreversible phenomenon that has resulted in a process of change under the form of modernisation.This modernisation has both positive and negative consequences.
